From Beyond The Grave
by Chanting Fox
Summary: A fool with power is dangerous, but a fool that does not understand the power he calls upon will bring catastrophe. Unfortunately for Sly and Carmelita, this catastrophe involves two individuals they'd hoped they'd seen the last of...
1. The Path Of The Fool

It matters not where in the world it happened, but only that it did happen. There are two types of people who have been responsible for the great horrors throughout recorded history: those who intend to cause harm to others, and those who are fools in positions that a fool should not be able to attain. Unfortunately when one finds a person who is both of these types, one should prepare for the worst. This story starts with the actions of such a person, but one who had intended much less harm to others than would come to pass due to his foolishness.

Many candles were present in the room, some serving merely as light sources but others arranged in various patterns and symbols. Standing in the middle of a chalk circle was a young lizard, a mad gleam in his eyes that foreshadowed ominously what he was attempting to do and what would happen. He continued to read from the book he held in his hands, and to those unfamiliar with such books it would have sounded like complete nonsense. 

The cover of the book was completely black save for a single symbol upon both the front and the back of the book. These symbols were actually a warning, and they had once held such power that even those unfamiliar with the symbols themselves would have been able to tell how dangerous the book was. The person who owned the book knew very well what the symbol meant, but the young lizard in question had stolen the book foolishly assuming it was similar to those which he had used in the past. 

So what exactly was the young lizard doing? He was summoning what he THOUGHT were spirits who would do his bidding, which was to scare the living daylights out of a group of summoners that had rebuffed his attempts to join them. He thought this was because they didn't believe he was good enough to associate with them; in reality, it was because the other summoners thought he was a fool who didn't understand how dangerous summoning ANYTHING was... and they were right.

"Come thou spirits who dwell in the deepest darkness, hearken to my call. I command thee to appear before me, I hold thee now in thrall! Return to the world of the living this day... hear my command which thou must obey!" This is not a translation of what the lizard was saying, but rather what he read straight from the book. If a more experienced summoner had been present right then and there, they would have fled the room as if being chased by an angry mob intent on burning them at the stake (something which was a big problem for summoners several hundred years before.) Of course anybody with half a brain should realize something is amiss when the words in a book change from being in an ancient language to being in modern-day English.

Unfortunately for the world and for the young lizard, the latter of the two was focused upon what orders he would give the spirits he had just summoned upon their appearance into the world of the living. He never would end up giving those orders... a massive sphere of dark energy started to manifest in the center of the room and shattered almost immediately, and the spirit released from it quickly raised one of its talons over the young lizard. The last things that went through the young lizard's head before he was crushed into a gory mess by the spirit were a warning that he had forgotten and a saying he now understood too late; that spirits of immense hatred could manipulate a summoning ritual being performed by a summoner foolish enough to not know the power he was invoking, and that the path of fools leads only to destruction... 


	2. Pact of Spirits, Sealed By Hatred

The spirit looked down at the gory mess that was now all that remained of the foolish young summoner, and started to laugh. When the spirit had been "alive," that laughter would have been chilling enough, but now that he was a spirit the laughter sounded even more so. "What a fool... but not so much a fool as Cooper. Did he really think he would be able to get rid of ME that easily? I who stayed alive for centuries sustained by my hatred for his line? Clockwerk is not so easily destroyed... my body may be no more, but now I am even more powerful than ever, and I'll show that to Cooper when I tear him to shreds! Him and that equally foolish Inspector..." "Not so fast chum... I'm the one who's going to deal with Carmelita!" 

Clockwerk turned to see who was so impudent and foolish as to say that to him, and saw another spirit. This spirit was that of a young tigress, a ghostly whip at her side. "Who are you and how dare you speak like that to me?" "Come off it... I had a bit of experience fused together with your body after it was reassembled... at least before the Cooper Gang and Carmelita teamed up to destroy it and ME!" Clockwerk was stunned, but he quickly realized that the other spirit was telling the truth; the hatred she was emanating spoke to that. 

An hour later, Clockwerk had heard the story of the young tigress, and he realized that she probably would be a better candidate to deal with the Inspector... as she'd make it last a lot longer before finally finishing off the Inspector. "So Neyla, you managed to double-cross Inspector Carmelita, this Klaww Gang, Interpol AND the Cooper Gang? Quite an achievement... if you hadn't forgotten about Cooper's turtle friend, you might have succeeded in your goal." "Tell me about it... Cooper's pal Bentley is also on my list of people to horribly eliminate from the face of the planet. I'd also like to take out Cooper myself, but you've got a bigger claim to that than I do... just don't kill him until I kill Carmelita. I want him to see EVERYTHING that I do to her, knowing that he's powerless to prevent it." 

Clockwerk was starting to like this Neyla, and he agreed to hold off on killing Cooper until she finished off Carmelita. It would make Cooper's death that much sweeter, as from what Neyla had told him, it appeared to have been quite a bit more than sentimentality that had nearly gotten Cooper killed in his gas chamber. "Now all we need to do is to find out where Cooper and the Inspector are now..." "Not yet... let's start with Cooper's hippo friend. I heard that he's a race car driver now... stock van class." "Where did you get that information from?" "Some fool who got killed when his sabotage job on the Cooper van didn't end up killing the hippo, and the crime boss who hired the guy lost a fortune betting on the race the hippo was in because of that."

Neyla then went on to drop the bombshell that she'd also heard from the same guy... that Cooper had apparently lost his memory and was now working for Interpol, courtesy of the Inspector! "That's IMPOSSIBLE! How in blazes did he pull that off?" "Two words: Inspector Fox. She's somewhat naive and somewhat besotted by Cooper. She probably hasn't even considered the possibility that Cooper's pulling the wool over her eyes... and nobody at Interpol would be able to believe that somebody would be able to pull the wool over her eyes." 

When one spirit of immense hatred manifests in the world of the living, the price the living pay will end up being high. When two spirits of immense hatred manifest, they will almost always fight with one another. However when this does not happen, and the two spirits make a pact sealed by their hatred, the price the living will end up paying is unimaginable. This was something that Sly and Carmelita were about to learn, as before Clockwerk and Neyla were done, much of what was near and dear to them would be gone forever... if not their lives as well. 


	3. Dark Requiem

Clockwerk was getting a bit impatient. It was only a hour until sunrise, and a few hours later the race that Cooper's hippo friend Murray was participating in would begin. "Where the devil is that Neyla? I thought she said she was going to meet me here!" "Don't get your feathers all ruffled... I'm here! Oh, and you're going to LOVE what I've got as a "present" for that stupid hippo... it's the last "present" he'll ever get." Clockwerk turned to see Neyla holding what appeared to be an explosive device... but it looked too small. "If you're wondering, this is enough... I "acquisitioned" some C4 from a military base for this little beauty." "Military explosives... that hippo is as good as dead! Not to mention the panic it'll end up causing when traces of such an explosive turn up when they analyze what remains of the van!" 

Why would it cause a panic? Besides being a military explosive, C4 has certain chemical markers added to it which mark the C4 as being obtained from a certain source. The detonation of the C4 doesn't destroy these chemicals completely, and traces always turn up when an analysis is done. It was inevitable that the C4 would be traced this way, and the end result would be a gigantic mess for anyone linked even slightly to the victim.

Clockwerk suddenly stopped laughing (which he had been doing for about 30 seconds) and said to Neyla: "Unfortunately, this isn't going to cause any trouble for Cooper. Like you said, he's "lost his memory" and nobody at Interpol will want to risk jogging it, will they?" "Unfortunately not... but it will probably make him and Carmelita uneasy... too bad they won't have any idea of who was responsible until it's too late for them. Too bad for THEM, that is!" "Just in case the explosive isn't enough, I think it should be attached to the nitro system of the van." "Not enough time, and the hippo will probably check under the hood... that's where that guy I got the info from tried to sabotage the van. Attaching it to the bottom of the van should suffice. After all, both the gas and the nitro will probably travel through the lines down there.

Clockwerk was a bit surprised with himself... he should have realized that easily. "I hate to admit it, but my hatred for Cooper and his friends must be interfering with my thought processes... I should have realized that myself." "No big deal chum... not compared to how big a deal it'll be to bury that hippo Murray after the explosion... they'll have to put his body back together piece by piece!" "Yes... but then there probably won't be a body to put back together!" Both Neyla and Clockwerk laughed evilly, and a dozen sparrows outside of the garage the two were in (they had been searching for bugs to eat) dropped dead of fright.

Several hours later, Murray entered the garage. "Hello my darling! Ready for today's race? Yeah, I know you want to get out there and beat those other racers just as much as I do! A quick check under the hood, and then we'll be good to go." Everything checked out fine under the hood, so Murray closed the hood, got inside the van and started it up. "Alright baby, let's get ready to burn up the track!" The van started up and quickly sped out of the garage, leaving it empty... save for Neyla and Clockwerk who were hiding in the shadows. Spirits are quite versatile when it comes to hiding, and the two were no exception to the rule.

Clockwerk was the first to speak. "Did you hear that? That fool was treating his van as if it actually had feelings... no, like he loved it!" "I'm a bit surprised at that as well... but it'll make this even more rewarding... and ironic. I especially liked his comment about the van "burning up the track." It'll be doing that all right... just not the way he expects!" The two passed through the walls of the garage and headed to an abandoned building just a block from the racetrack to watch the race... or at least the part of it that would take place before the C4 attached to the bottom of Murray's van detonated.

The race was supposed to be three hours long from start to finish, but Neyla and Clockwerk wouldn't have to wait that long. About an hour into the race, the timer on the C4 explosive counted down to the fatal "zero" and detonated. The explosion not only obliterated the van, but sent several adjacent vans flying as well as leaving a large crater in the racetrack. Needless to say, Murray never had any chance to bounce clear of the van before it was destroyed. Everybody stared on in horror... except for two spirits in an abandoned building, who were now singing a happy song. "Ding dong the hippo's dead, gone in a flash of orange and red..." 


	4. Damage Control

If there was one good thing that ended up happening when it came to Murray's death, it was the fact that Neyla and Clockwerk didn't get the panic they'd envisioned; the truth (that somebody had attached a C4 explosive to the van) never was learned by the general public, and the spectators who had been present were easily fooled by the explanation that a tragic malfunction appeared to have taken place in the nitro system of the van, causing the deadly explosion. Unfortunately the other racers had to be threatened in various ways because they all knew that such a thing was impossible. Murray may not have been a intellectual genius, but it was well-known that he was second-to-none when it came to knowledge pertaining to auto mechanics. Furthermore, the racers knew that nitro by itself was highly unlikely to explode with sufficient force to obliterate an entire van and blast a crater into the racetrack. This would later come back to haunt both parties involved in the intimidation, which were the sponsor of the race and Interpol... the former of which would end up faring far better in the end then the latter.

Of course Interpol wasn't directly involved with the investigation of what had happened, as if they got involved nobody with half a brain would believe that this had been anything short of an outright murder... and then the questions and panic would start. However, those investigating the explosion were contacted discreetly, and given the "suggestion" that they shouldn't bother looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Interpol's efforts were only partially successful though; the investigators did a full investigation and discovered the presence of the "tracers" left behind by the explosive. However, Interpol was able to stop it from going any further as the investigators had to turn over the investigation and all the evidence they'd collected to Interpol. The discovery of a military explosive being involved immediately placed jurisdiction of the investigation squarely in Interpol's territory. Even if that hadn't been the case, those who had been in charge of the investigation up to that point didn't have the power either legally or politically to take the investigation any further. Interpol was ABLE to take the investigation further... they just DIDN'T take it any further.

Why on earth would they do that? Take your pick of reasons... all of them based squarely on fears and possibilities nobody (at least among those at Interpol who knew about this) wanted to entertain. It's not exactly an everyday occurrence when somebody's murdered via C4 explosive... and usually the victim is some political and/or military bigshot, not a stock van racer. Next was the obvious... nobody at Interpol wanted to take the chance that something like this would jog the memory of "Constable" Cooper, and for that matter some people at Interpol were still slightly skeptical that Cooper really had lost his memory. While there wasn't any evidence to prove that Cooper was pulling a con job on Inspector Carmelita Fox (and believe me, they searched for any such evidence quite thoroughly), if Cooper regained his memory and/or bolted...

Last but not least, it was a headache that some of the people at the very top didn't want to have to deal with. As far as THEY were concerned, it was no big loss to the world. "One less potential headache to deal with. Once a criminal, always a criminal." People like these are the reason that great tragedies occur; they think they are protecting the world by doing "damage control," but it only makes far worse by the deliberate ignorance of a greater potential threat. Of course, they couldn't hush up everything... 


End file.
